The Clackamas print., May 20, 2009, Image 1

First copy FREE, additional copies If
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Volume 42, Issue 22
John Petty Clackamas Print
bs being cancelled due to
llment have become a nec-
pnoyance at the beginning
term, but what if the class
ally need to be cancelled?
ie first day of spring break
| March 23, . students who
led up for James Bryant-
I Shakespearian Lit class
landa Coffey’s U.S. Latino
■were sent e-mails saying
classes were cancelled.
Ever, instead of immedi-
pg taken out of.the system,
[were able to still register
Basses over the next couple
Due to a delay in processing
[defunct classes.
[Bryant-Trerise and Coffey
[over the next couple of
at although some of the
[that were signed up had
[the class, others were still
n Shakespearian Lit was
Ed, eight students were
[in the class, according to
[dgkinson, assistant to the
[arts, humanities and social
|. After the cancellation,
[rerise noted that there
least five students who had
Bp for the class after it was
[cut.
IT Clfinn T it hnrl 1 A oti
times, the acceptable
number for whether of not to keep
a class is around 14 and that is the
number many instructors strive to
meet.
According to Bill Briare, dean
of arts, humanities and social stud­
ies, the assumption that a class will
run because it has 14 bodies in it is
not necessarily correct.
“Students
aren’t alerted
that they have
to sign lip
before a cer­
tain time or
their class may
get cancelled. ”
Amanda Coffey
Instructor
“Fourteen is commonly thought
to be the golden number but
that’s not always the case,” Briare
explained adding, “We’ve can­
celled classes with 20 students.”
He also said that they have kept
classes with much fewer than 14
students in situations where the stu­
dents needed the class to graduate.
According to Kate Gray, English
department chair, the classes were
cancelled a week early in order to
give students time to react.
“A-bigpart of my decision was
to make sure students had time
to get. into other classes,” Gray
said as to why she and Briare had
decided to cancel the classes a
week early.
One major contributing factor
this term as to why the numbers
spiked in these classes after they
were cancelled was, according
to Gray, because many students
signed up late.
“This quarter the game com­
pletely changed,” Gray said elab­
orating. .“More students sighed
up late.”
Coffey noticed the trend that
students were signing up late and
believes one problem that led to
her class being cancelled was ill-
informed students.
“Students aren’t alerted that
they have to sign up before a
certain time or their class may get
cancelled,’’ Coffey said. “These
are courses that could fill.”
Coffey admitted that waiting
for the term to start before cancel­
ling the class might be one way to
ensure classes tould fill properly
but also understands that there are
a myriad of problems that would
come with that.
“I understand why the class
was cut when it was cut,” Coffey
said. “The way it played out this
time was just very unfortunate.”
Bryant-Trerise understands
why his Shakespearian Lit course
was cut as well and knows it was
a. hard decision for his dean to
make.
“I think Bill treasures things
like this. I know he does,” Bryant-
Trerise acknowledged. “I know he
winces when he makes that deci-
sion.”
What hurts Bryant-Trerise isn’t
Lisa Sellars Clackamas Print
Instructor James Bryant-Trerise teaches his Bible as Literature class
last week. Although he would have had two lit classes this term,
Bryant-Trerise says he is fortunate sometimes to even get one.
that his class was cancelled
because it had too few people
and therefore it wasn’t worth
enough to keep, but the fact
that not enough people cared to
take it.
“The budget reflects people’s
values and people don’t under­
stand the value of humanities,”
Bryant-Trerise said sadly.